{"id":103063,"date":"2025-10-27T07:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103063\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T07:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:16:14","slug":"nov-15-is-put-down-the-phone-day-in-marion-county-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103063\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov. 15 is ‘Put Down the Phone Day’ in Marion County, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Nov. 15, the Marion County Children’s Alliance<\/a> and its community partners are asking Marion County residents to put down their phones.<\/p>\n

The “Put Down the Phone Day” campaign<\/a>‘s goal: to “raise awareness about the impact of excessive screen time on mental health, relationships, and overall well-being,” the alliance said in a news release.<\/p>\n

“The effort was born out of a focus group discussion held earlier this year by the MCCA, where members identified mental health, largely influenced by social media and screen use as the number one issue impacting youth,” Marion County government wrote in a news release announcing the campaign.<\/p>\n

“Our goal isn\u2019t to villainize technology,” children’s alliance Executive Director Beth McCall was quoted as saying in her agency’s news release. Rather, “it\u2019s to help people start the conversation and bring awareness to this issue.”<\/p>\n

McCall said that putting down our phones, even for a few hours, will help us “reconnect with the people and moments that truly matter.”<\/p>\n

“This campaign is about strengthening families, supporting mental health, and building a more connected community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nov. 15 is just the start. On Dec. 3, the “Look Up Marion, Put Down the Phone Commuinty Summit” will be held.<\/p>\n

“This event brings together community leaders, youth, and partners to explore how we can create healthier, safer spaces for children and families by reducing screen time and strengthening real-life connections,” organizers say.<\/p>\n

Gator fan: How this Florida Gators fan impacted my life, and others, with his ebullient spirit | Brockway<\/a><\/p>\n

The summit will feature national speaker Mandee Hamann, who will “present to educators, parents, health professionals and community leaders to share insights, strategies and stories about the importance of digital balance and mental well-being,” the alliance says.<\/p>\n

The summit will be 8:30-10:30 a.m. Dec. 3 at the Klein Center at the College of Central Florida, 3001 SW College Road Ocala. Tickets are $20. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit https:\/\/mcchildrensalliance.networkforgood.com\/events\/92346-look-up-marion-put-down-the-phone-summit<\/a><\/p>\n

A full overview of the campaign can be found at LookUpMarion.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Nov. 15, the Marion County Children’s Alliance and its community partners are asking Marion County residents to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9225,365,1259,9228,2986,8789,2109,13653,134,8788,1452,440,256,9223,9229,1885,554,555,429,111,43,139,69,75105,428,450,1072,9232,427,8795,431],"class_list":{"0":"post-103063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-advocacy","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-community-issues","12":"tag-county","13":"tag-enabled","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-fl","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-highlights","18":"tag-issues","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-local-news","21":"tag-marion","22":"tag-marion-county","23":"tag-mental","24":"tag-mental-health","25":"tag-mentalhealth","26":"tag-neutral","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-newzealand","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-ocala","32":"tag-overall","33":"tag-overall-neutral","34":"tag-social","35":"tag-social-issues-u0026-advocacy","36":"tag-story","37":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","38":"tag-u0026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}